Education Certificate

Education Certificate

Education is more than imparting knowledge and defining the parameters of discipline. The best educators understand issues of power, history, self-identity and the possibility of collective agency. Our curriculum and field experiences are designed to meet not only the needs of students and teachers, but their communities. We help you develop as a public intellectual and ethical citizen as you earn your Connecticut teaching certification, which has reciprocity in 45 states and the District of Columbia. You learn to see education as an opportunity to create a multiracial, multi-vocal democracy that can address today’s serious social, economic and environmental problems. The program consists of a sequence of courses, in addition to an outside major, and culminates in a semester of student teaching. We have a reputation for producing excellent educators; our alumni teach in elementary, secondary and music schools across the country and the globe.

Internships and service learning

In the Education Department, we emphasize fieldwork. All of our education courses have a field placement component—observation and participation, assistant teaching, or full-time student teaching in local elementary or secondary schools. Through these experiences, you explore issues and perspectives about education in the context of everyday classrooms, which will make you a better teacher.

International opportunities and study abroad

The certification program provides the flexibility for you to study away and still earn certification in four years. Our students have studied around the world, in Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe. Many also apply to the College's interdisciplinary centers to earn certificates in community action, international studies, the environment or arts and technology. In the Education Department, we work with you to draft a plan that ensures you can take full advantage of the opportunities available here.

Teacher Certification Program

Connecticut College is a member of CETE, the Consortium for Excellence in Teacher Education, along with Barnard, Bowdoin, Brandeis, Brown, Bryn Mawr, Dartmouth, Harvard, Middlebury, Mount Holyoke, Princeton, Smith, Swarthmore, the University of Pennsylvania, Vassar, Wellesley, Wheaton and Yale. These 16 member institutions share a common commitment to a broad liberal arts education for those entering the teaching profession. Their teacher education graduates are characterized by breadth of study, a major in liberal arts discipline, and work in education that enables them to meet state certification in reciprocal states.

EDU 313 Children's Books, Culture and Teaching Literacy

People You Might Work With

Lauren Anderson

Associate Professor of Education, Chair of the Education Department

Lauren Anderson's research interests are situated at the intersections of education policy, teacher education, and K-12 school and classroom practice. In particular, she explores how teachers and school leaders make sense of and mediate federal, state and local policy in the context of their daily work. Lauren teaches courses focused on educational foundations, urban schooling, literacy pedagogy and elementary teaching.

Donna Graham

Sandy Grande

Professor of Education, Director of the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE)

As a teacher and scholar, Sandy Grande centers her work in the belief that education is the heart of a critical democracy. She asserts that questions about education cannot be reduced to disciplinary parameters, but must include issues of power, history, self-identity and the possibility of collective agency and revolutionary struggle. Thus, rather than reject the language of politics, Professor Grande constructs teaching as the link between public education and the imperatives of democracy.

Michael E. James

Professor of Education, Director of SATA Cuba/Mexico, Fall 2016

Michael James situates his pedagogy within a theoretical paradigm that is materialist and democratic. He believes the study of schooling and education necessitates understanding the construction of power, not just within capitalist relations, but as an alternative to those arrangements. He teaches courses in the Foundations of Education, Critical Math and Science Education, and seminars in Critical Pedagogy as well as Education and The Revolutionary Project in Latin America.

John Madura

Dana Wright

Associate Professor of Education

Dana Wright's research and teaching interests include curriculum theory and design, sociocultural theories of learning and participatory action research (PAR) with young people. Conducting research in high schools, middle schools and community-based organizations, she investigates elements of the curriculum and learning settings that limit or promote engaged learning.

Why Education?

Student Interview

Peggy McQuaid

American studies, education

Student Interview

Q: How did you choose your major?

A: I wanted to study elementary education and majored in American Studies because I am interested in race and ethnicity. Discussions in class centered on inequality and were stimulated by students from many disciplines. Everyone contributed something different to the dialogue.

Q: What were the advantages of studying education at Connecticut College?

A: The program reinforced my ideas about justice and equality and broadened my awareness. I am very interested in urban education and English language learners, so the New London community has been a great place to learn.

Q: Did you study abroad?

A: I took a semester off to work in Honduras at a bilingual elementary school, which gave me an entirely different context in which to view education and Latin American immigration.

Q: What are your career plans?

A: In 2013 I returned from three years as a principal in Honduras, which was an amazing experience (and huge challenge!). I now teach kindergarten at the Regional Multicultural Magnet School in New London. Within five years I plan to enter graduate school so I can go back to administration or become a professor of education.

Courses You Could Take

Literacy in the Elementary Schools, Curriculum and Classroom Assessment, Teaching and Learning for Social Change: Power, Agency and Action, Mathematics and Science in the Elementary School, Curricular Theories and Design in the Content Area, Children's Books, Culture and Teaching Literacy

About Connecticut College

Connecticut College educates students to put the liberal arts into action as citizens in a global society. A leader in the liberal arts since 1911, the College is home to nationally ranked programs for internships, community action, arts and technology, environmental studies and international studies. Our beautiful 750-acre arboretum campus is located in the historic New England seaport community of New London.

CONNECTIONS is Connecticut College's reinvention of liberal arts education. It is a new kind of curriculum that lets you integrate your interests into a meaningful educational pathway, to carry you through college and into a fulfilling, effective career and life.